A new book, Pope Francis has spoken out on a variety of topics from his personal development to many issues facing church and state. Not surprisingly, LGBT topics were mentioned, and not surprisingly, the popes statements are a mixed bag.

The book, entitled Politics and Society, is a series of 12 conversations between the pope and Dominique Wolton, a French sociologist. Cruxcarried a string of excerpts from the book on his visits to a psychoanalyst, the role of the laity, colonial exploitation, and, of course, same-gender marriage and gender identity. On the last topic, the excerpt reads:

Whats new here, however, is his endorsement of civil unions for same-sex couples. Although many church leaders have suggested supporting such an arrangement in recent years, Pope Francis has never, as pontiff, stated his endorsement of civil unions so flatly. (He did supportcivil unions as a compromise to his opposition towards marriage equality when he was an archbishop in Argentina. As pontiff, he did make an ambiguous statementabout civil unions, which inspired more questions than certainty about his position.) This new statement of support from him is a giant step forward. What is significant here is that he is agreeing to the importance of some sort legal recognition of civil unions for lesbian and gay couples. I dont think he will be campaigning for such legislation, but it sure sounds like he is comfortable with them and that he wont be blocking them.

Most troublesome, though, is his continuation of promoting the idea that children are being taught to choose their sex or gender. He has said such before, but in all the material I have read on transgender issues and education about gender, I have never seen any evidence that children are being taught such a notion. In fact, it goes against what most transgender people say of their experience which they describe as a discovery of a discrepancy between their internally experienced gender and their external physical bodies. Discovery is a very long way from choice.

Moreover, I dont know of any educational programs that discuss gender with children before it is educationally and psychologically appropriate to do so.

So, once again, Pope Francis both progresses and regresses on LGBT issues.

Soooo pope baby thinks sin is okay with God??? Either you marry ,one man and one woman or you are chaste....Now,we find a third way..God is okay with SOME SINS...Civil unions,divorced getting communion..Who knows next year pope Frankie may say God is okay with aborting the poor babies to save mother earth....

The feature that served as a bulwark in the Roman segment of Christendom — its hierarchy, capped by a traditional successor to Peter himself — has rotted enough to require Catholics who want to live blessed, godly Christian lives to do a radical rethink.

Obviously, concerns about people going to hell arise. Now maybe the church is giving itself too much credit or blame in the matter. Maybe we crazy evangelicals are correct that it’s a Jesus and predestination/foreknowledge matter and it’s something that not even an erring church can mess up. If someone goes to hell, nothing would have stopped it anyhow — at best being around a better church would have caused them to go to hell with a better veneer.

As for me, I obey the Word when it says to give a reason for the hope that is in me. I think this colossal failure of the pope and the modern magisterium is permitted by God exactly for the purpose of refocusing the hopes of the largest single segment of Christendom. Somehow, being right with God is more than just being the people who are calling themselves the leading members of the church.

And come on... think even of what Luther said that he wanted (with the 500th Reformation Day just around the corner). It wasn’t to found a whole separate church. It was for the church that he knew and loved to come back to God. Maybe it took its leadership leaving God blatantly enough to make it happen. Maybe Luther will get his first stated wish with respect to the church soon after all.

A false claimant of the Holy See in opposition to a pontiff canonically elected. At various times in the history of the Church illegal pretenders to the Papal Chair have arisen, and frequently exercised pontifical functions in defiance of the true occupant.

14
posted on 09/02/2017 3:42:20 PM PDT
by yuleeyahoo
(Those are my principles, and if you do not like them...well I have others. - Groucho Marx)

Writer: "Whats new here, however, is his endorsement of civil unions for same-sex couples."

I am no fan of this Anti-Pope, but the writer of this article is not fair. The Pope is not endorsing civil unions. He is endorsing the use of a term to distinguish these fictional marriages from real marriages.

"Civil union" is the best term for this since it captures the idea, it is already widely used, and it does not try to twist the meaning of an existing term.

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